Matej Mohoric (UAE Team Emirates) won stage 7 of the Vuelta a España from the breakaway, thinning out the 14-rider group on the late climb of the Alto del Castillo and dropping the remaining members on the descent, before holding his slim lead on the 10km run-in to Cuenca.
Pawel Poljanski (Bora-Hansgrohe) finished second, and Jose Joaquin Rojas (Movistar) third, 16 seconds back, in a trio that also contained Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal) – the only riders who could stay with Mohoric on the punchy cobbled climb.
Thirteen seconds behind them, Jetse Bol (Manzana Postobon) crossed the line in a second chasing trio, and by doing so leapt up into the top 10 overall. The Dutchman had started the day 8:55 down but the Team Sky-led peloton was happy to let the break carve out a substantial advantage, crossing the line 8:38 behind the stage winner.
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That meant Bol jumped above Fabio Aru into seventh place, 46 seconds down on race leader Chris Froome, who finished safely alongside his main rivals on a day when Sky controlled proceedings in the peloton from start to finish.
The journey from Lliria to Cuenca looked fairly innocuous at a glance, but the gradual hike to 1000m and the constantly undulating terrain amounted to an altitude gain of 2700 metres on what was the longest stage of the 2017 Vuelta, at 207km.
Despite a couple of tense moments when the peloton split briefly on exposed roads, it was a relaxed day for the general classification contenders as, in the absence of any real appetite for a chase in the peloton, it soon became clear that the breakaway would go all the way.
How it unfolded
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